Runner-Up titles:"What happens in the basement, stays in the basement"
"I cant believe I just did that!"

In honor of both the man who nearly cut off his own arm when it got stuck in the furnace and my own stupidity, I would like to hear the horror stories of those who have injured themselves in the line of DIY home improvement.

Just to get things started, let me tell you the tale of this weekend.
I am giddy with excitement at the prospect of nearly completing the framing portion of my basement. I was working on framing around the duct work in my wife's craft room. As I am rough-fitting a cross brace, I realize that I need to use the longer fasteners (2.5") as the shorter ones wont work. Because of this, I perform due diligence and make sure there is no wiring, plumbing, or other undesirables at the exit point. Seeing that the area is clear, I position the piece and hold it flush with the board its going to be attached to. First nail, no problem.. Second nail, well, that's a different story. As I pull the trigger, I feel a sharp pain in my finger tip. I yank my hand down, while letting my feelings be known to anyone within 100 yards (my poor children are probably scarred for life). As I examine the wound, I start to think "This is probably going to hurt tomorrow". As I turn my hand over, I realize that there is blood coming out the other side as well.... Yes, boys and girls, the nail went ALL THE WAY through my freaking finger. Exit wound was at the cuticle. Now.. in my defense, my fingers were NOT there when I was checking for clearance..

The 'Entry Wound' was pretty small, it was a 15d finish nail...

The 'Exit Wound' was a surprise...

I am reaching out for support. Tell me I am not the only one who sometimes leaves his brain on the workbench while picking up a power tool.
Trips to the hospital are worth five extra points. An ambulance ride is twenty.

The funny part was, after I came upstairs and iced if for about 10 minutes and put on a bandaid, I was heading back downstairs. My wife says 'Where are you going?' To which I reply, 'Im going back down to finish what the hell I was working on!'

Here's where I almost, REALLY hurt myself. I ALMOST tripped when my pants leg caught on it. That could've REALLY REALLY hurt. I only had the nailer for about a month and that story had just hit the news about the guy that ran a nail into his head through his mouth and didn't even know it. LOGANESS was NOT happy.

I dont have any pictures, but i did take a small chunk out of meaty part of my thumb with the miter saw. Didnt scar, but it sure did bleed a lot!

I have empathy for you Craig, those finish nailers can be tricky! I was tacking up some lath to repair a plaster wall, and i got stuck about half way through my finger once. I thought i was totally clear, but i was using longer nails than i needed (its what i had available at the time.) But the nail went into the stud hit a nail and curved right back out 180 degrees and right into my finger.

Refitting my fabric panels I had to make adjustments. 1st injury was with a coping saw, I was cutting a curve on a small piece of wood and the saw snapped up thru the wood and hit my left index finger right on the middle knuckle while still making a cutting motion. So it wasn't pretty, it was deep and definately a bleeder but because of it's location no way I could get stitches. By the next morning it was really swollen and had a lot less motion. It's finally just recently healed.

The other one was when I restapling the fabric to one of the reconfigured panels. I shaved one of the pieces of wood and it was thinner than before, so when I shot one of the staples thru, one side missed and hit my left ring finger close to the tip. Another bleeder which looked like craig's 1st pic. The funny thing was that it looked really dark, and I knew something wasn't right. Sure enough I had my daughter help with tweezers & get two pieces of string from the fabric which went into my finger.

oman, I had to laugh at your opening statement.. How many injuries have you had that you could only recount the last couple?

The pictures I linked are actually 4 days post trauma.. so its healed up pretty well. Although the arm where I got my tetanus shot hurts like hell..

Speaking of extra holes in the body where they don't normally exists, I'm still recovering from a vasectomy (TMI - I know, but we're all family here, right?). Really makes you want to step very gently off of the ladder

Speaking of extra holes in the body where they don't normally exists, I'm still recovering from a vasectomy (TMI - I know, but we're all family here, right?). Really makes you want to step very gently off of the ladder

Definitely some good ones here so far For myself, no doctor visits but plenty of blood spilled (enough to keep my dogs interested in me) due to the following:
1) Sheet metal cuts from HVAC work
2) Gouged/bloody/bruised shins from falling wood
3) Coping cut like oman..learned quickly not to keep any digits near end of cut

Speaking of extra holes in the body where they don't normally exists, I'm still recovering from a vasectomy (TMI - I know, but we're all family here, right?). Really makes you want to step very gently off of the ladder

Didn't you get the new no scalpel method? No recovery at all other than a bit of ice for the first day or so. Wouldn't have done it if I couldn't get this method.

Quote:

Originally Posted by craig72

The 'Entry Wound' was pretty small, it was a 15d finish nail...

Finish nail for framing? Good thing you weren't using a proper framing nail... This is one of the reasons I use screws.

My most recent was when I was using my beltsander to sand down some subfloor to level out some dips and humps. Had the trigger lock on and I guess the cord came unplugged somehow. Plugged it back in knowing full well that it would take off but I figured I could grab it and look cool (to no one watching). Anyways, I guess i missed, it hit something and jumped up. The 36 grit belt took a good layer of skin off the underside of my wrist. Still scarred 3 months later. I learned my lesson. Don't show off unless there is someone there to see it.

Runner-Up titles:"What happens in the basement, stays in the basement"
"I cant believe I just did that!"

In honor of both the man who nearly cut off his own arm when it got stuck in the furnace and my own stupidity, I would like to hear the horror stories of those who have injured themselves in the line of DIY home improvement.

Just to get things started, let me tell you the tale of this weekend.
I am giddy with excitement at the prospect of nearly completing the framing portion of my basement. I was working on framing around the duct work in my wife's craft room. As I am rough-fitting a cross brace, I realize that I need to use the longer fasteners (2.5") as the shorter ones wont work. Because of this, I perform due diligence and make sure there is no wiring, plumbing, or other undesirables at the exit point. Seeing that the area is clear, I position the piece and hold it flush with the board its going to be attached to. First nail, no problem.. Second nail, well, that's a different story. As I pull the trigger, I feel a sharp pain in my finger tip. I yank my hand down, while letting my feelings be known to anyone within 100 yards (my poor children are probably scarred for life). As I examine the wound, I start to think "This is probably going to hurt tomorrow". As I turn my hand over, I realize that there is blood coming out the other side as well.... Yes, boys and girls, the nail went ALL THE WAY through my freaking finger. Exit wound was at the cuticle. Now.. in my defense, my fingers were NOT there when I was checking for clearance..

The 'Entry Wound' was pretty small, it was a 15d finish nail...

The 'Exit Wound' was a surprise...

I am reaching out for support. Tell me I am not the only one who sometimes leaves his brain on the workbench while picking up a power tool.
Trips to the hospital are worth five extra points. An ambulance ride is twenty.

The funny part was, after I came upstairs and iced if for about 10 minutes and put on a bandaid, I was heading back downstairs. My wife says 'Where are you going?' To which I reply, 'Im going back down to finish what the hell I was working on!'

I'm going to go out on a limb here and offer medical advice over the internet. So you can put my advice in perspective, I've been a family doctor for about 10 years.

The kind of injury you sustained has me a bit worried. Looking at those pictures, more specifically at the entry and exit wounds, the nail most certainly graised the bone. As such, this could become serious in that there is a possibility of the bone becoming infected. Keep in mind, you would probably not have symptoms for at least 1-3 weeks. Therefore, I'd advise you go to the doctor and get some Augmentin (antibiotic) and take it for 7-10 days. I realize this is a purely preventitive sort of treatment, but I have seen osteomyelitis of the finger cause HUGE issues.

I will follow Oman's lead and omit most of my long, sometimes-violent relationship with tools. Here are the most recent highlights:

A few weeks ago I tacked a 1/4" MDF template to a workpiece with a couple of air-driven staples. When I went to remove the template, the staples pulled through the MDF so I had to pull them out of the solid cherry workpiece without inflicting too much damage to the cherry. I wrestled the first staple out with the help of a variety of tools. For the second staple, I had the bright idea of sticking something through the crown of the staple and using it to lever the staple out. I looked around for a tool that was narrow enough to go through the crown of the staple and my eyes fell on an awl (think "ice pick"). "That will work!," I thought to myself. So I'm holding the workpiece with my left hand while I use my right hand to shove and pry on the awl, when the staple decides it has had enough of this and breaks at the crest of the crown, abruptly releasing the awl and freeing it to plunge into my left hand. The awl went about 2.5 inches into the fleshy area at the base of my thumb, angled toward the wrist -- parallel to my hand, rather than perpendicular to my hand, if you can picture that. Thank heaven it missed the tendons and nerves. I leaked some blood for a while and wore a very awkward bandage for a few days, but no permanent harm.

I'm always surprised at where I find blood spots after one of these little incidents. I got a rag on this wound immediately, before I even looked at it, so I was surprised to find blood sots when I got back out to the shop. Including two little spots on the unfinished cherry cabinet that was behind me when I stuck myself. I think I sanded all the blood stain off but I won't really know until I apply the finish.

Hi advertguy2 - I was just attaching a drywall nailing strip (about 12" long). My framing nailer would have split it in two (and probably removed the end of my finger). I often use the smaller gauge for pieces like this. As far as the incision type for the vaso, Im not sure what they used, I just know that its no fun to tear out a stitch because I am too stubborn to give it time to heal. Dont worry everyone - I have no intention of attaching pictures of THAT wound...

Gelfling - Thanks for the advice. I did go to the doctor, but they just gave me a tetanus shot. Maybe I'll call them back and try to get some drugs

I was working alone until midnight everyday with a drywall jack to minimize the rental fee. One day after many hours of fighting the drywall, I had trouble adjusting the height of the jack. I knelt down close to release (read: bang on it with drill) the safety stop. I got it unstuck. The weight of the dywall sheet slammed the jack down hard and fast causing the crank wheel handle spin around and thump me in the head so hard, I went down and lost my vision for a few seconds (I think it was seconds). I'm not a small guy (6'4", 280 pounds), and have a high tollerance for pain. But, steel to the head still hurts!.
So why did it take me so long to get the drywall in? My framer team did not get any of the studs at 16" on center. Out of the whole 800 square foot basement, I probably had to custom size all but maybe three sheets.

Seriously, I'd not wish this sort of thing on anyone....my worst one to date was dropping a 5m long 45x300 beam on my head.....just before I got on a plane for 5 hours...not a good day. Safety tip number one - DONT RUSH THINGS